Yasef's big step...

[Yusuf]

Last night, Yasef has been out and flew away in the living room for the first time.:35: He was so excited and shaking when landed on the clothes drying stand. Later, gaining more confidence flew to the other side but crashed to the wall and found itself on the floor. Finally couple of more flies and crashes , I managed to pick him up with a perch and put him back to its cage. He is still reluctant to be hand picked which I am working on.

Me and him were so happy while we are bonding each other more and more everyday.

Some pictures of Yasef after returning to the base...

 

[Yusuf]

I have a question though. How to avoid Yasef to crash to the walls and direct him safely back to the top of the cage?

How can I speed up to have him to turst me more to step on the top of my hand?

Thank you all in advance.

 

[weco]

Sorry Ysuf, but there is no way to speed up a bird's trust of you.....when they no longer view you as a potential threat or harbor a concern that you may do something that it may not like, the degree of trust will increase.....with young birds, it is simply a learning process.....

The same with Yasef flying into walls.....in the wild, birds have their parents and other flock members to learn from about how best to avoid obstacles, but when we take young birds as companions, the bird must learn on its own, through trial and error.....

Often when a bird flies into a solid wall, it is somehow distracted, whether by a loud noise, someone trying to catch it, another animal appearing in the room, a door closed suddenly, etc.....with windows/glass, the bird often does not perceive that glass is a boundary and not a tunnel to the outside world.....

 

[Mavis]

One thing that I can think of, if he will come on you, is take him to the walls and windows and gently show him and tap them, try and get him to feel them too.

 

[Ducatimom]

You said he was stepping up on a perch with you holding it fine. So the next thing I would do is move your hand up the perch just a little bit and keep picking him like that until he's comfortable. Then move your hand up again, and again until finally just your hand. Don't chase him with your hand when you get to that point because that might set you back again.

 

[veimar]

I don't know much about greys, but I rescued a 18 mo old not tame cocktail who was never let out of his tiny cage, and he managed to fly into the walls so bad that his wings were bleeding. He was totally lacking any feeling of space. I just had to clip him myself on the very first day so that he could still fly a bit. Now two months later he is SO MUCH better! He is completely cage free and can fly short distances where he needs to.
I'm not a supporter of clipping (all my other birds are flighted), but sometimes a half-clip can really help to prevent injury and gain trust.